Victor Morello, 39 of barangay Parian, Cebu City was waiting in line to have his blood pressure checked. He rushed to the outpatient department of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) after he got dizzy while preparing lunch for his family on Monday.
Morello was fanning himself while seated on a plastic chair.
About 10 more patients were also waiting in line to avail of the city government hospital’s healthcare services.
“Dugay pero agwantahon na lang kay wala man koy ikabayad sa private hospital,” he said. (It’s taking a while but I have no choice, but to wait because I do not have money to pay for medical check up in a private hospital.)
Crowding is a daily occurrence at CCMC’s OPD that accommodates about 300 patients per day, said hospital chief Gloria Duterte.
OPD patients still do not include those who come to the animal bite center beside the OPD for treatment and anti-rabies injections.
“Dili man ta mobalibad sa atong mga pasyente labi na ug emergency cases pero naa gyuy panahon nga mag huwat usa sila kay naa pa man sad tay daghan nga gi-atiman,” Duterte added.
(We don’t turn down patients especially if it’s an emergency. But sometimes, they have to wait because we are also attending to other patients.)
Duterte said that unlike the OPD, patient admission has reduced by more than half since the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Central Visayas exactly a year ago today.
The powerful temblor heavily damaged the old CCMC building which used to accommodate a maximum of 300 patients per day.
Coping with space limitation, Duterte said, they are now limited to only operating a 98-bed capacity hospital although there are days that admissions would reach 108.
Patients are accommodated in wards set up in makeshift hospital rooms.
Duterte said they refer some of their patients, especially those in need of major surgeries, to other government hospitals like the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (DVSMMC).
In July, the Department of Health (DOH) downgraded CCMC’s status from Level 3 to Level 1 because of the absence of a fully-operational Intensive Coronary Care Unit (ICCU) where patients with high risk cardiac ailments or those who need to undergo special procedures such as intra-aortic balloon, heartbeat regulation, hemo-dynamic monitoring as well as cardioversion for arrhythmia are attended to.
Duterte said the DOH classification is based on four requirements — service, manpower, equipment and infrastructure.
CCMC’s lack of a hospital building is something that City Hall will have to work on for the hospital to regain its Level 3 classification, she added.
One year after the earthquake, Mayor Michael Rama’s dream of building a “world-class hospital” to replace the 45-year old CCMC building is yet to be realized.
The site where the old hospital building used to stand remains a fenced vacant lot.
“You better ask the national government what are they doing (to help the city).
It’s not a question of one-year, but has there been movement?” said Rama who is apparently frustrated of the national government’s failure to help him realize his dream hospital.
CCMC continues to get an annual budget of P300.7 million from City Hall, of which P197.7 million is for the salary of about 400 personnel including 33 on training doctors.
The remaining P105 million is for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).
The MOOE budget already includes P40 million for drugs and medicines and P150,000 for the daily sustenance of the patients computed at P15.67 per meal.
Be Patient
Rama is appealing to Cebuanos to be patient with their hospital.
“We already had the bidding (for phase 1 of the hospital construction project). This administration will never stop for that new building to rise,” he said.
The city government needed to raise about P1.5 billion to build a 10-story, 409 bed-capacity hospital.
City Hall has so far raised P316 million, of which P300 million was appropriated in this year’s Supplemental Budget 1, while the remaining P16 million was raised from donations.
Rama also received about P912 million in pledges including those made by Cebuano communities abroad.
Duterte said they are asking for the inclusion of another P300 million in the 2015 budget to fund the second phase of the construction project.